Boston Red Sox: A parallel view of Rick Porcello and Josh Beckett
By Rick McNair
The Red Sox have an eerie comparison between Josh Beckett and Rick Porcello. Both followed disappointing seasons with outstanding ones. Will Porcello match Beckett’s outstanding playoff performances?
The Boston Red Sox acquired Josh Beckett in the proverbial “blockbuster” trade with the Florida Marlins to be the ace of a staff and he was – if you view it under the microscope of short term. Anything beyond that is rather questionable.
Beckett’s first season in Boston was a bitter disappointment since his Earned Run Average (ERA) ballooned to a career-high of 5.01. Beckett’s 16-11 record certainly provided some material to the metrics crowd that depreciated wins. Digging deeper Beckett was equally inept at home and on the road.
Rick Porcello came to Boston with much promise and collapsed with a dismal ERA of 4.92 and a 9-15 record for the last-place Red Sox. In addition, management – specifically Ben Cherington – negotiated a contract extension that would pay Porcello over $20 Million per season beginning in 2016. Based on the results of 2015 there was a rush for tar and feathers at Lowe’s.
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In both instances, the Red Sox anticipated pitching gold, yet were faced with pitching manure. The general consensus was duds have arrived in the form of high priced and underperforming right-handed talent. Both were also 26-years-old when they came to Boston. Then it happened.
In 2007 Beckett finished second to C.C. Sabathia in the Cy Young Award voting. I believe there was a hanging chad in Ohio that cost Beckett the award. Nevertheless, Beckett led the American League in wins with 20 and his ERA shrunk to 3.27. It was a true ace performance, if for only one season.
Porcello will win the Cy Young Award. No hanging chad or questionable Chicago ballots. He’ll get it. Porcello led the majors in wins with 22. Likewise, his ERA nosedived to 3.15. What was once a signing disaster suddenly became terrific insight for the departed Cherington.
A true measure of the credential establishment is winning the proverbial “Big Game” and that is linked to the exhausting and excruciating long postseason play. When Beckett arrived, he had already established on his résumé that ability. Beckett was the World Series Most Valuable Player when Miami defeated the New York Yankees in 2003.
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Porcello’s post season is bleak with no wins and an ERA of 4.41. So, like David Price, he has something to prove by taking some white out to his post season performances. And, like Beckett, Porcello can take a huge step forward against the Cleveland Indians.
In 2007 the Red Sox were a game away from dismissal, sitting at 3-1 against the Indians. Beckett, who had pitched a brilliant shutout against the Los Angeles Anaheim-Southern California Angels, got what establishes all aces of note – the ball for the “Big Game.” No history lesson here, folks, as Boston won and Beckett now added an MVP for the American League Championship Series to his trophy case.
Porcello will now, like Beckett, face the Indians in a short series instead of the seven-game death march of the ALCS. Porcello has something to prove to himself and to cement a memorable season of pitching into our collective brain pans. Failure to produce will certainly have an adverse impact upon Red Sox Nation.
Beckett went forward after the ALCS to the World Series and won his only start – a one run and seven inning effort – over Colorado as the Red Sox swept the Rockies away. Will Porcello follow the same path through the playoffs? Beckett was like a locust hitting a wheat field in 2007 and now Porcello must do the same.
After 2007 Beckett’s career lapsed into one of injuries and poor performances until the Red Sox found a buyer for his enormous contract. That contract was a fiscal albatross and with the Dodgers Beckett won only eight games in three injury aborted seasons. The once great promise of Boston 2007 never resurfaced.
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For Porcello that could exist since with arms, one never knows the outcomes. Porcello has had a career that is virtually injury free and suddenly he has advanced from a competent mid-rotation pitcher to ace. That, however, is in the long-range future and in the short-range Porcello (and Price) have something to prove and that can only be accomplished by leading the Red Sox to another championship.
Sources: Fangraphs